I was wondering if any of the fellow MDD users here has a favorite OS X (or 9) flight simulator that they recommend, that would run well on a MDD, and a good USB joystick/controller. Does X-Plane (any particular preferred version) run well?
Or how about FlightGear for Mac? Any one with first-hand experience care to share a quick review or pointers on how well it runs on their MDD? I am thinking my GeForce4 Ti probably would run the older flight sims better in OS 9 than any of the newer ones that require 10.4 (I can boot either). But a new video card is always an option. On my old G3 Dekstop I was running OS 9 versions of Fly!
(version 1) and F/A-18 Hornet 1.2 & Korea 3.0 with an ADB CH Products F16 Fighterstick, but found the joystick action was fairly sensitive and hard to keep trimmed and didn't really use them that much. I no longer have the G3 (or ADB joystick) so I'm looking for a USB joystick/controller for my MDD. Good morning Glenn, Not sure about the v8 sysreqs either, but the demo is running pretty well on my MDD 1.25 SP. It maybe averages 5-10 fps slower than v7 but I'm still playing with settings. It's hard to do six minutes at a time in the demo. X-Plane will use all the VRAM you can throw at it.
I recall your card is 128MB so that should not be an issue. I noticed v8 has two settings for FSAA; one for the aircraft model and one for the terrain textures. For add-ons, I use x-plane.org.
Refine your search for x plane joystick mac. More Format Format. All listings - Current page Auction Buy it now Classified Ads. 0 results for x plane joystick mac. Amazon.com: X-Plane 10 Global Flight Simulator (PC & MAC): Video Games. Extreme 3D Pro Joystick for Windows. Recommended System Specifications For the best experience, we recommend the following system specs: a Quad Core,.
Not much left there in the way of aircraft and scenery files for v7 but there are scores for v8. Looks like you can get either v8 or v9 directly from Laminar Research for US$29 with all the world terrain files on DVDs.
I paid like $70 for v7 with the extra files. I don't think any modern joystick will require USB Overdrive with X-Plane, so I doubt brand is as important as the number of buttons and sliders. I recall Overdrive was for early OSX apps that did not have the programming to properly accept a USB input device. USB-O was common with Fly! II and early adopters of OSX. X-Plane 7 has a huge number of options built into its controls dialog boxes and v8 has even more.
Frankly, I'd start with any cheap stick and get used to the sim. Use that time to realize what extra controls you'd like to have on the stick, then get a better one with extra buttons, switches, etc. Having used XP7 for several years, I find myself wishing for rudder pedals and a HOTAS controller array, even for general aviation craft.
If you have/get rudder pedals with toe brakes, so much the better. Understand that X-Plane, like other sims, has a steep learning curve due to 'richness of features.' I'm still finding stuff in v7 after 5-6 years! We should probably not go too deeply into this here or we'll end up in hot water with the hosts. Send an e-mail to my temporary e-mail address idahomacguy/a t/yahoo/d ot/com and I'll redirect it to my regular account and reply from there. Hi Glenn, Boy, did you post in the right place! I've run Mac flight sims for years and was a beta tester for Fly!
That program never handled OSX very well, but I understand it's now gone open-source and is being used again. Haven't gotten back to it. I use X-Plane 7.30 almost exclusively on my MDD (1.25G SP; 10.4.11; 1,74GB RAM; Radeon 9000 Pro 64VRAM). I tried the last of V7-7.63-but found it buggy, went back to the stable 7.30, and never tried v8 on the MDD.
I ran the v9 demo on my MacBook Pro 2.2G and it ran fine. X-Plane 7 produces frame rates in the 30-50 fps range with the sim set at 1024x768 and the details setting basically cranked to a six out of a possible seven detail levels. XP uses the 'aperture function' in AGP cards to access some main memory when the v-card VRAM runs out. At current settings.
XP says it's using nearly twice the VRAM that is on the Radeon card. I recommend you try the v9 demo on your current set-up to see how it runs. The demo defaults to a complex scenery area in Switzerland (I think) so it's a pretty heavy-duty test of your system. Play with the settings and see if you can live with it. Understand the the demo area has custom scenery elements that make it more taxing than will routine flying-most areas will not have custom scenery unless you add it. In X-Plane, you can install airport and terrain databases for the entire world.
![X plane joystick setup X plane joystick setup](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125515657/795647261.jpg)
I did, and my XP folder is 6.77GB. That's without any custon scenery areas! You will find the menu system rather un-Macish even though the developer team uses Macs. Bothered me at first but I got over it.
I think I tried the FlightGear demo and found it choppy on the MDD and pretty much non-responsive to input. Several years ago I bought a Saitek ST200 digital stick for US$15 off a clearance rack someplace to replace my old ADB Gravis MouseStick ii.
X-Plane is quite happy with it. Can't say the same about other sims. I loved the Hornet franchise and own three pre-OSX versions but they do not like the USB stick. I intend to try the lastest OSX version but simply haven't gotten to it. We could make this thread go on for a long time 😮.
The link to add v8 to the cart does not work, but if you add v9, then you can add v8 and remove v9 from the cart. I noticed the same thing when trying to get V8 into a cart and we both discovered the same workabout. I ran Fly 2K and Fly II on a Beige G3 with a Sonnet G3/500 upgrade for a long time. Started with a Rage Orion 128-bit 16MB card, then an original Radeon at 32 MB. Then I got X-Plane and saw a strong improvement in performance compared to Fly! Adding the RME9200 to the Beige G3 let me raise XP's detail settings without taking a rate hit. However, finally getting the G4 was an eye-opener!
Huge improvement with XP, but Fly! II still does not do work a flip on the G4 and I've abandoned it. I'm going to order XP version 8 also. You have that address should you want to ask a question or compare notes. Hi Glenn, Boy, did you post in the right place!
I've run Mac flight sims for years and was a beta tester for Fly! That program never handled OSX very well, but I understand it's now gone open-source and is being used again. Haven't gotten back to it. I use X-Plane 7.30 almost exclusively on my MDD (1.25G SP; 10.4.11; 1,74GB RAM; Radeon 9000 Pro 64VRAM).
I tried the last of V7-7.63-but found it buggy, went back to the stable 7.30, and never tried v8 on the MDD. I ran the v9 demo on my MacBook Pro 2.2G and it ran fine. X-Plane 7 produces frame rates in the 30-50 fps range with the sim set at 1024x768 and the details setting basically cranked to a six out of a possible seven detail levels. XP uses the 'aperture function' in AGP cards to access some main memory when the v-card VRAM runs out. At current settings.
XP says it's using nearly twice the VRAM that is on the Radeon card. I recommend you try the v9 demo on your current set-up to see how it runs.
The demo defaults to a complex scenery area in Switzerland (I think) so it's a pretty heavy-duty test of your system. Play with the settings and see if you can live with it. Understand the the demo area has custom scenery elements that make it more taxing than will routine flying-most areas will not have custom scenery unless you add it. In X-Plane, you can install airport and terrain databases for the entire world. I did, and my XP folder is 6.77GB. That's without any custon scenery areas! You will find the menu system rather un-Macish even though the developer team uses Macs.
Bothered me at first but I got over it. I think I tried the FlightGear demo and found it choppy on the MDD and pretty much non-responsive to input. Several years ago I bought a Saitek ST200 digital stick for US$15 off a clearance rack someplace to replace my old ADB Gravis MouseStick ii. X-Plane is quite happy with it. Can't say the same about other sims. I loved the Hornet franchise and own three pre-OSX versions but they do not like the USB stick. I intend to try the lastest OSX version but simply haven't gotten to it.
We could make this thread go on for a long time 😮. I d/led the v8 demo.
Hope you have a fast internet connection and patience. The download is only 24MB but that is an installer that gets everything else of the X-Plane servers. It ran four simultaneous streams but still could not exceed about 160kbps on our cable service that can hit d/l rates of 600-1100kbps from a faster server. The installer gets a lot of zip files and unzips them on the fly. If it hits a error, it switchers servers. That happened several times.
Will play with is and let you know if it's worth the time investment. Good morning Glenn, Not sure about the v8 sysreqs either, but the demo is running pretty well on my MDD 1.25 SP. It maybe averages 5-10 fps slower than v7 but I'm still playing with settings. It's hard to do six minutes at a time in the demo.
X-Plane will use all the VRAM you can throw at it. I recall your card is 128MB so that should not be an issue. I noticed v8 has two settings for FSAA; one for the aircraft model and one for the terrain textures. For add-ons, I use x-plane.org. Not much left there in the way of aircraft and scenery files for v7 but there are scores for v8. Looks like you can get either v8 or v9 directly from Laminar Research for US$29 with all the world terrain files on DVDs.
I paid like $70 for v7 with the extra files. I don't think any modern joystick will require USB Overdrive with X-Plane, so I doubt brand is as important as the number of buttons and sliders. I recall Overdrive was for early OSX apps that did not have the programming to properly accept a USB input device.
USB-O was common with Fly! II and early adopters of OSX. X-Plane 7 has a huge number of options built into its controls dialog boxes and v8 has even more. Frankly, I'd start with any cheap stick and get used to the sim.
Use that time to realize what extra controls you'd like to have on the stick, then get a better one with extra buttons, switches, etc. Having used XP7 for several years, I find myself wishing for rudder pedals and a HOTAS controller array, even for general aviation craft. If you have/get rudder pedals with toe brakes, so much the better. Understand that X-Plane, like other sims, has a steep learning curve due to 'richness of features.' I'm still finding stuff in v7 after 5-6 years!
We should probably not go too deeply into this here or we'll end up in hot water with the hosts. Send an e-mail to my temporary e-mail address idahomacguy/a t/yahoo/d ot/com and I'll redirect it to my regular account and reply from there.
General flight sim performance on the MDD is relevant enough here, this pretty much answers the question. Thanks for all the info. The link to add v8 to the cart does not work, but if you add v9, then you can add v8 and remove v9 from the cart. I liked the integrated charts and maps, that was pretty cool to find your home airport and fly around town. 3D performance on my old G3 (with a 1GHz G4 and ATI9200) was never really that great, but since getting this G4 I am starting to rediscover some of the older 3D games that I gave up on.
I am getting back into Oni also, but that's another topic. The link to add v8 to the cart does not work, but if you add v9, then you can add v8 and remove v9 from the cart. I noticed the same thing when trying to get V8 into a cart and we both discovered the same workabout. I ran Fly 2K and Fly II on a Beige G3 with a Sonnet G3/500 upgrade for a long time. Started with a Rage Orion 128-bit 16MB card, then an original Radeon at 32 MB.
Then I got X-Plane and saw a strong improvement in performance compared to Fly! Adding the RME9200 to the Beige G3 let me raise XP's detail settings without taking a rate hit. However, finally getting the G4 was an eye-opener! Huge improvement with XP, but Fly! II still does not do work a flip on the G4 and I've abandoned it. I'm going to order XP version 8 also.
You have that address should you want to ask a question or compare notes. I don't think I know the answer. What version of Falcon and under what Mac OS? I see it's been upgraded and re-released but I cannot find a Mac version of the new release, Falcon 4 Allied Force, or the 'Free Falcon' version. The only version of Falcon I tried was the original Falcon 4 Mac in the OS9 days on my PowerMac 'Beige' G3. It seemed to have certain video cards' specs hardwired in its code and could not deal with cards newer than the program. I started with a 16MB ATI Rage Orion card and F4 was good.
Then I upgraded to a 32MB Radeon and it was better. Going to a 128MB Radeon 9200 ruined it.
The program did not recognize the newer cards and reverted to software graphics. After that the performance was dismal and I've not used it since moving to OSX about 2003 If you're running it on the Intel Mac via Bootcamp or other way of using Windows on a Mac, then your version of Falcon is about 10 years newer than mine. You best bet it to search some user forums for sims like this one: on avsim.com. I wish I had better news but my recollections of the details this sim are getting pretty weak! Just thought I would post an update, I got a joystick when they were on sale recently, and it seems to be recognized and works with the X-Plane 8 demo, you can configure all the buttons to whatever functions you want.
I haven't gotten started with the flight sim so much yet, I got sidetracked with some other older games. Going off-topic here.
For some older OS 9 games, like X-Wing and Tie-Fighter (collector CD versions), I was able to program settings for this USB joystick with an older version of USB Overdrive. And with regards to Oni, I finally defeated all levels of the game, what an incredible story line.
For those who haven't heard of it, before there was the blockbuster HALO franchise, there was Oni. Runs great in both Classic mode and in OS X on an MDD.
Really innovative at the time, and still holds up pretty well by today's standards. My son bought Oni back in the OS9 days when we shared the Beige G3. As we bought better Macs (or better vidcards) it just got better.
I tried it after I got the MDD and it 'ran' fine under 10.3 via Classic, but the Logitech optical mouse was limited to moving the POV no more than 180 degrees in front of the character. Booted into OS9 and it was back to perfect performance. I was never any good at an FPS game with a joystick. Too acustomed to the mouse and teh WADS pattern. I've not looked at Oni in a while since getting the 22' widescreen monitor. I've not found a hack that will let me run in windowed mode.
The new 16:9 display makes the usually trim title character look rather middle-aged in her.mmm.shall we say, 'southern exposure.' Apple Footer.
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